Hundreds of people turned out this weekend for the Festival Of The Holy Spirit celebrations held in St George’s. The Festival started centuries ago in the Azores, and is celebrated by Portuguese citizens and descendants worldwide.

The Square was decorated, with live music and plenty of food on offer including Portuguese donuts which were selling as fast as they were made. Also on show were decorated sections in keeping with traditions, located at the old passenger terminal on Ordnance Island.

The weekend celebration began on Saturday night with entertainment including the Filipino dancers, a comedy show and Canadian singer Henrique Cipriano.

Sunday started with a procession to the St George’s Catholic Church Stella Maris for a mass before heading back to the Square for a night of social fun and celebration. The night was filled with music and performances by the Vasco Dancers, the Travellers and more.

According to various reports, the festival stems from a legend which says that during the reign of Portugal’s Queen Isabela centuries ago a drought plagued the country. Against her husband’s wishes, the Queen hid food in her apron, with an aim to sneak out and feed the poor.

Her husband once asked her to open her apron, and Queen Isabela prayed to the Holy Spirit before opening her apron for his inspection. When she opened it, roses are said to have tumbled out instead of the food, a miracle which sparked the Festival of the Holy Spirit.

That’s one thing African Bermudians lack is a knowledge of our historical culture and traditions. We been colonialized for so long we’ve forgotten the self worth of the birth of civilization and the richest country in the world (in raw materials, gold , diamonds, etc)

Now, why do you want to hyphenate your identity? Your identity is by all means a Bermudian of African descent but a Bermudian none the less. Why would you want to start to compartmentalize the different groups on the island? Divide and conquer? So, say you want to go there, do you know what region from Africa your ancestors are from? Be proud of Bermuda and your heritage but do not go hyphenating because you will start to feel isolated from the rest. Bermuda is a beautiful country, a beautifully black country and you should take great pride in being a Bermudian, a black Bermudian with African heritage.

No I don’t know what region my ancestors are from in Africa ,unlike other ethnic groups who where blessed to record and monitor their family tree, most Africans didn’t have that privilege. So you want to go there, In my opinion divide and conquer goes further then different groups in this little island. Look at all the carribean islands, each have an identity of the island they where born and PROUD of it their ancestors where dropped off their from Africa. How is it that every other ethnic group can be proud of where their ancestors originated from but when it comes to black people especially in Bermuda we get bent out of shape. What African tradition do we practice to be proud of as a heritage other then being born on an island that our ancestors where dropped off.